Litter and refuse: code of practice
This code of practice outlines what a court of law might consider as applicable to different types of land.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 imposes duties under section 89(1) and (2) on certain landowners and occupiers to keep specified land clear of litter and refuse, and on local authorities and the Secretary of State to keep clean public highways for which they are responsible.
This document provides a practical guide to the discharge of these duties and applies to England only.
Part 1 contains a code of practice (referred to throughout as ‘the Code’) issued under section 89(7) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Part 2 contains advisory standards for graffiti and fly-posting. Such defacement, even if partially removed, has an adverse affect on the quality of the environment and can lead to an increase in crime. Even if all of the litter and refuse were cleared,the public would perceive the area to be defaced if graffiti and/or fly-posting were still present.
Part 3 contains details of the legislative framework that surrounds this code of practice.
September 2019 update
The code of practice was updated to include Part 1A on enforcement guidance (published as a separate document on this page). We also published the modification note which details the changes made.
February 2022 update
Last year Defra laid regulations which made minor and technical changes to the Littering From Vehicles Outside London (Keepers: Civil Penalties) Regulations 2018 - the regulations which gave councils in England (outside London) the power to issue a civil penalty to the keeper of a vehicle from which litter is thrown.
These new regulations, which came into force on 14th February 2022, will ensure the process council’s should follow to recover unpaid penalties is consistent with other traffic enforcement regimes.
In particular, they introduce the step of an enforcement notice and set out the respondent’s right to challenge a court order on specified grounds through the filing of a witness statement. Section 11P.0 has been amended to reflect these changes
October 2023 update
The Prime Minister’s Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan set out how we will support councils to take tougher action against those who harm our public spaces. This included a commitment to significantly raise the upper limit on fixed penalty notices for certain offences, which we did in July this year.
Part 1A of the Code of Practice has been updated to show the new upper limits on fixed penalty notices for littering, graffiti, fly-posting, fly-tipping and breaching the household waste duty of care.
Updates to this page
Published 1 April 2013Last updated 19 October 2023 + show all updates
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We have updated the maximum full penalties in section 11L.0 of the Part 1A enforcement guidance.
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We have updated Section 11P.0 of the Part 1A enforcement guidance to show recent changes to legislation. The February 2022 section of this page has details about these changes.
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Added the modification note, modified code of practice document and part 1A - enforcement guidance document.
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First published.